Borealis at Art Basel
December 2025 ––
During Miami Art Week 2025, Rivian and Nylon reached out to Munkowitz with an invitation to create a bold activation on the beach for their prestigious Nylon House Party. The brief was simple and ambitious: design an immersive artwork that could live outdoors, directly in the sand, surrounded by wind, tide, and a constantly shifting crowd. The result was a live laser installation inspired by the Aurora Borealis, transforming the shoreline into a drifting light phenomenon during one of the most culturally charged weeks of the year.
The installation imagines the Rivian R1 as the quiet center of that phenomenon. Set directly on the sand, the vehicle becomes a kind of beacon, surrounded by soft dunes, rolling atmosphere, and layered bands of teal and violet light that move like a grounded aurora. The goal was to create a moment that felt suspended in time, where light behaves like weather and gathers around the vehicle as if drawn to its presence.
The installation imagines the Rivian R1 as the quiet center of that phenomenon. Set directly on the sand, the vehicle becomes a kind of beacon, surrounded by soft dunes, rolling atmosphere, and layered bands of teal and violet light that move like a grounded aurora. The goal was to create a moment that felt suspended in time, where light behaves like weather and gathers around the vehicle as if drawn to its presence.
“At its core, the work is about translating invisible forces like electricity, energy, and motion into something the audience can feel in their body.”
The Concept
–– 02To achieve this, ten fifty-watt lasers were suspended around the Rivian R1 and choreographed to sweep and fold through dense haze, revealing crisp volumetric forms and a constantly evolving canopy of light. The color palette pulls directly from the R1’s Borealis purple finish, allowing the light to feel native to the vehicle rather than applied to it. Lasers were chosen for their intensity and clarity, especially in an outdoor environment where wind and atmosphere are always in motion. The dunes shape the air currents, the haze becomes the medium, and the vehicle anchors the experience.
“The installation imagines the R1 as the quiet center of a drifting light phenomenon.”
The Concept
–– 03On the shoreline in Miami, the vehicle becomes a kind of beacon, surrounded by soft dunes, rolling atmosphere and a shifting field of teal and violet that moves like a grounded aurora. The goal is to create a moment that feels suspended, where light behaves almost like tide or weather and gathers around the R1 as if drawn to its presence.
The R1 is positioned directly in the sand during Nylon’s Art Basel celebration, placed within a sculptural landscape of fog and atmosphere. Around it we suspend ten 50W lasers that sweep and fold through the haze, revealing crisp volumetric shapes and a constantly evolving luminous canopy. The color palette comes from the R1’s custom paint finish, which helps the light feel native to the vehicle rather than applied to it.
The dunes shape the air currents, the haze becomes the medium the beams travel through, and the R1 acts as the anchor of the entire experience. The inspiration is rooted in translating the invisible qualities of electric power into something the audience can feel in their body. It is about transforming the engineering spirit of Rivian into a living moment of energy, atmosphere and motion.
The R1 is positioned directly in the sand during Nylon’s Art Basel celebration, placed within a sculptural landscape of fog and atmosphere. Around it we suspend ten 50W lasers that sweep and fold through the haze, revealing crisp volumetric shapes and a constantly evolving luminous canopy. The color palette comes from the R1’s custom paint finish, which helps the light feel native to the vehicle rather than applied to it.
“Lasers were chosen for their intensity and clarity. They maintain sharpness outdoors, even with environmental drift, and allow the light to feel physical and intentional.”
The dunes shape the air currents, the haze becomes the medium the beams travel through, and the R1 acts as the anchor of the entire experience. The inspiration is rooted in translating the invisible qualities of electric power into something the audience can feel in their body. It is about transforming the engineering spirit of Rivian into a living moment of energy, atmosphere and motion.
–– 03
The Process
–– 04What inspired me most about the Aurora Borealis was its extraordinary sense of depth. It stretched vertically into the sky in layered bands of light that felt alive, dimensional, and constantly in motion. There was a softness to it, but also a monumental presence that filled the entire field of view and altered your perception of space. That duality, delicate yet powerful, ephemeral yet overwhelming, was endlessly compelling to me and became the emotional foundation of the work.
Using lasers and fog allowed us to echo those qualities in a very intentional and controlled way. Lasers created vertical architectures of light that felt precise and sculptural, while the haze gave those structures volume, texture, and breath. As the atmosphere shifted, the light responded, revealing depth through overlap, translucency, and movement. Together, they formed an environment where light was no longer a point source or a surface treatment, but something spatial, immersive, and bodily felt.
That idea of light as an environment became the foundation of the work. Amid the intensity and momentum of Art Basel, the installation was designed to offer a moment of suspension. Extensive previs, spatial mapping, and choreography shaped a structure that could respond to wind, tide, and human presence without losing coherence. The sequence moved between surges of energy and moments of stillness, allowing the piece to breathe and remain alive. In the end, it existed as a temporary convergence of atmosphere, technology, and intuition — a drifting phenomenon on the shoreline that resisted fixation, revealing itself only in passing moments of alignment.
Using lasers and fog allowed us to echo those qualities in a very intentional and controlled way. Lasers created vertical architectures of light that felt precise and sculptural, while the haze gave those structures volume, texture, and breath. As the atmosphere shifted, the light responded, revealing depth through overlap, translucency, and movement. Together, they formed an environment where light was no longer a point source or a surface treatment, but something spatial, immersive, and bodily felt.
“The beams could rise, drift, and overlap like auroral curtains, revealing layers that appeared and disappeared depending on where you stood.”
That idea of light as an environment became the foundation of the work. Amid the intensity and momentum of Art Basel, the installation was designed to offer a moment of suspension. Extensive previs, spatial mapping, and choreography shaped a structure that could respond to wind, tide, and human presence without losing coherence. The sequence moved between surges of energy and moments of stillness, allowing the piece to breathe and remain alive. In the end, it existed as a temporary convergence of atmosphere, technology, and intuition — a drifting phenomenon on the shoreline that resisted fixation, revealing itself only in passing moments of alignment.
–– 04
